2 ms·

Never heard of the Quarter-millimeter before. Strange mix of divisions by tens suddenly switching to divisions of twos

• WillAdams 6mo ago
  It's known as the _kyu_ in Japan and used for specifying type (font) sizes.
• stevesimmons 6mo ago
  I'd never heard of it either. A comment further down suggests it is Japanese. Digging deeper, the kyu -- or Q for quarter millimeter -- is apparently a foundational distance measurement in Japanese typesetting, which is metric and operates on a millimeter grid.
  • twic 5mo ago
    The article mentions: > the German and Japanese point is 0.250 mm It's probably the sanest adaptation of the point to the metric system. A traditional point is close to a third of a millimetre, but that's too weird. Since the Q is close to 3/4 of a traditional point, it's also quite easy to convert from traditional multiple-of-three point sizes: 9 pt -> 12 Q, 12 pt -> 16 Q, etc. Although it's even easier just to call those 3 mm and 4 mm!
• m463 6mo ago
  When the mcdonalds quarter pounder with cheese came out, the europeans came out with this government sponsored measurement for fast food chains to standardize and compete without adopting american standards. (like usb-c over lightning) ;)